Man of sin

And so listen, verse 19 to 22.

First of all, verse 19 and 20, he asked, he wanted to know about the man of sin, this Antichrist, this person that is specifically is being placed before us here.

Notice, I would know the truth about the fourth beast.

He already learned about the first and second and third, but really he was interested to know specifically, he's zeroing in about the fourth beast, the Roman Empire, and what's the development of the Roman Empire.

Notice, he's coming, and our gathering together unto him.

Verse 2, that ye be not shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as for from us, as that day of Christ, that has to do with the tribulation, this day of Messiah, is at hand.

let no man deceive you by any means, for that day, that's a tribulation period, shall not come except there be falling away, and then listen first, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Now, if you just put those scriptures together, Daniel 7 says, Revelation 13, 2 Thessalonians 2, if you take those passages together, you notice he's speaking about one man who is going to rise one day.

It's the whole purpose of the epistle is to explain we're not in the day of the Lord because this hasn't happened.

The man of lawlessness-

Right

... which you guys are, are you associating the man of lawlessness with the antichrist, with the beast, with the abomination of desolation?

Yes.

These, these are all-

Nothing like that happened.

The city was destroyed, and that is the kind of desolation that is, is denoted in Jeremiah.

By his sentence I stand excommunicated.

Heretic is the best language he affords me, yet can no ear witness I ever returned to him the name of Antichrist, Man of Sin, or Whore of Babylon.

It is the method of charity to suffer without reaction.

Those usual satires and invectives of the pulpit may perchance produce a good effect on the vulgar, whose ears are opener to rhetoric than logic.

Yet are their heads carried off with the wind and breath of such motives.

I remember a doctor in physic of Italy, who could not perfectly believe the immortality of the soul, because Galen seemed to make a doubt thereof.

With another I was familiarly acquainted in France, a divine, and a man of singular parts, that on the same point was so plunged and graveled with three lines of Seneca.

Post mortem nihil est, ipsaque mors nihil, mors individua est noxia corpore, nec patiens animae, toti morimur nullaque pars manet nostri.

On our last episode, I-- or a couple episodes ago, I called this the Great Apostasy, a, a tremendous falling away that's going to happen before Christ returns.

And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

This goes back to Daniel chapter 11.

Paul is borrowing language from there that seems like it-- There's some debate over this, but it seems like it was originally about Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but also speaks beyond Antiochus into a final end times tyrant, a man of lawlessness.

Now, now some say, "Well, it's not an individual man.

It, it's a line of popes or, or whatever," and we talked about that on a previous episode.

He's the devil, but he's God's devil.

He puts him on a leash.

Well, let me read it.

"Let no man deceive you by any means for the day shall not come except there be a falling away and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God." That's what the scripture says.

Yep.

The obvious question is: Who is Paul describing?

Well, the man of sin.

Yeah.

Son of perdition.

So 2 Thessalonians 2 just, it does give us an intriguing biblical picture of someone that sits to occupy a position belonging to God.

He says in verse 1, he says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that day of Christ is at hand.

Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work.

Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

And then in verse three, we see two of the names of the Antichrist that we referred to earlier.

Verse three, let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first.

And that man of sin, be revealed, the son of perdition.

So there's two titles of antichrist, man of sin and son of perdition.

So we should expect a human figure.

And this human individual at the end of the age is equivalent to the man of lawlessness from 2 Thessalonians 2 or the little horn.

from Daniel chapter seven or the ultimate and final manifestation of the beast of the sea in Revelation 13 and other places.

And so that's one side of the argument.

Now, even on that, like, take Saul in Acts chapter 9.

Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Like, people are attacking Christ every day by attacking the body of Christ.

That's the uh jesus and an antichrist are having like a physical fist fight somewhere and i don't think it means that most people don't um but to your point that there is this idea of a final antichrist that rises now this is the way the early church viewed it for several hundred years that did gradually develop over church history and i talk in my book about how views of the antichrist developed over time i think kim riddlebarger also writes a great book uh i think he calls it man of sin And even when, uh, when Riddlebarger uses, uh, the language man of sin, he's taking from second Thessalonians two, which is, uh, the ESV translates it, the man of lawlessness.

And so, uh, and so Josh, I would say that I take a more composite view.

And the

other question would be, The other question would be, can you identify the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians?

All right.

I don't know of anyone who would say that John was exiled to Patmos twice.

lawlessness is

concerned, I do not know who that is.

Many preterists believe the man of lawlessness was one of the bad guys during the siege of Jerusalem.

John Gishala was a really bad guy, according to Josephus, in the city.

We have the unrighteousness that is before us.

And the unrighteousness that is before us is the man of lawlessness, the man of sin, the son of perdition.

and these things are very very important because we can begin to see now that we've been given over to this why were we given over to it i don't know but we were given over to this and now we've got this fellow who has No boundaries.

I'm not limited by anything I may have promised to you.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's one guy that is the reason for all of it.

The one that doesn't have any boundaries.

The man of lawlessness.

The son of sin.